One in the Chamber
by Excalibent
Summary: Serious one-shots. These are the stories you won't hear anywhere else; the ideas are arguable, but the writing is original. So let's delve in and fire the pistol; it'll reload on its own time.
1. Re turn

Sonic thought he was prepared for anything.

He'd been to Arthurian times, usurped a king a taken his place. He'd been two hundred years into the future and taken down a god of fire. He'd defeated a monster of gears, greed and darkness at the core of time itself. He'd even been turned into a werehog and put the planet back together after it was _shattered into pieces._ But this?

There was nothing that even compared to it.

He'd been chasing Eggman across the country of Mobius, which - to his knowledge - was just a bunch of broken down machines and overgrown forests fighting for control of the land. Eggman, of course, got away, which led him to simply run in the direction that the Doctor had gone. As he ran, everything got more...organized, to a point. As he ran, factories emerged out of the rubble and ruins. As he ran, any plant life was either dying, dead, or just _gone_. Most importantly, as he ran, the pollution became worse and worse until downright sickening. Luckily, there was an old scarf caught on crooked tree, so he could filter most of the smoke and smog as he ran.

When he arrived at the core of the pollution, he retched, disgusted at the sight. The city in front of him was completely made out of tarnished metal. All around, there were robots repairing this and that, and from the state of it, he figured that there must have been constant attacks on the place to need so many robots to fix it...and so many to guard it.

There were factory chutes that towered into the sky, belching out so much smog that even standing next to the output would be lethal. A river - the only natural part about the place - was being constantly filled with used up oil and small pieces of metal. Almost one seventh of the city was in total disrepair, with piles of car parts, broken robots and metal beams rising almost as high as the buildings around them.

His disgust for the filthy place was overridden by his own conscience reminding him that Eggman had gone through the place, so he needed to pursue, whether he liked it or not.

Sighing, he took off, tightening the scarf around his mouth. He would be caught dead if he actually breathed the air.

* * *

><p>Sonic swore to Chaos that if there was any place he hated more than this stinking city, he hoped he'd be dead before he actually saw it. The oil on the ground made it hard to get traction, causing him to slam into a wall trying to stop and fall flat on his face when he tried to start running again. The alleys and roads were too narrow and turned to often for him to get through with all the oil, so he was forced to <em>walk.<em>

_Him._

_Sonic the Hedgehog, _the fastest thing on the entire planet, forced to _walk._

Needless to say, he was not pleased.

While he'd love to take his anger out on some of the guard bots, he hadn't seen a single one since he entered the broken section of the city. His fur was stained with splotches of the stuff, and his eyes were stinging. The air actually seemed better in the broken section, but it kind of made sense when he thought about it. Since the factories didn't work in the broken section, the-

_Hold up, _he thought, _What was that? _One of the shadows had moved, he was sure of it. Was it a friend or a foe? Only one way to kind out. Tentatively, he cusped his hands around his mouth and called out.

"Hello? Is someone there?" he asked. Something in the shadows shifted closer, and he could see red irises.

"Who are you?" it asked. It's voice was cold and emotionless, filled with metallic apathy.

"My name's Sonic - Sonic the Hedgehog!" he proudly proclaimed, striking a pose.

"Where are you from?"

"Hold up, buddy, can't you tell me who _you-_"

"No. Where are you from?"

"Honestly? I don't have an actual home. But my buddy, Tails, has a workshop up in-"

"One more question. What..." It paused for a moment, as if in thought. "...what is your favorite food?" it asked finally, as if this question was supposed to tie everything up in a dramatic conclusion.

"Hah, easy! Chili dogs, of- _oof_!" He was cut short when the figure jumped forward, catching him in it's arms. His first instinct was to run, but it wasn't actually doing anything. It just stood there, hugging him. He could tell it was made out of metal. What light that penetrated the clouds of smoke above revealed a faded blue hull. Maybe this was one of Eggman's earlier (and much less useful) copy-cat designs?

"Uh. Um - what are you -"

"C'mon, Sonny boy," it said pleadingly, "Don't you remember your own uncle?"

"Whoah, hold up, buddy," he said, shoving the robot back. "First off, I don't have an Uncle, and second off, _how do you know about me?_ This entire region was cut off from the rest of the world years ago, long before I started kicking the snot out of Eggman!"

"Because, Sonic, I'm your Uncle! Don't tell me you can't remember _anything!"_

"Okay, look," he said, calming down slightly, "I'm sorry, but I don't know you. You've got the wrong hedgehog."

"But I _am_ your Uncle, and I can prove it! Ask me about your upbringing, I can tell you anything."

"Hmph. Fine." Sonic was getting impatient with this guy. Why was he so persistent? "First question. How old am I?"

"Ah...eighteen, I think." Lucky guess.

"Alright. Next question: what's my...'talent', I guess?"

"Speed. You drove me crazy when you were younger, y'know." Easy question.

"Where was I born?" This startled the robot, but he answered swiftly.

"Mobotropolis. Other called it the 'Temple City' because of the architecture." _What_. He never told anybody about that, not even Tails! Had this guy met his old guardian?

"W-who were my parents?" Last question. He'd figured this one out personally from torn up books in an abandoned library somewhere. There was only one record, and he'd found it by pure luck, so there was no way this guy would-

"Jules and Bernadette hedgehog." Sonic didn't reply, shocked still. This was _impossible_. How was this guy his uncle? If it was true, what was he doing in place like this? What the heck happened here? Had he been here before, but didn't remember it? His whole life, it seemed, had suddenly fallen onto unbalanced stilts. Just one wrong move, and it would all come crashing down.

All, crashing...down...

* * *

><p>"...ic...Sonic, wake up...wake up, Sonny!" Sonic's eyes snapped open in a second, and he sat up even faster.<p>

"W-what happened!? Where am I?!" he asked, his breathing harsh.

"Slow down there, Sonic! You're in a safe place," said the robot. Sonic hesitantly obliged, and as calmly as he could, surveyed the room. It had blue walls and a couple pictures framed up against them, and a couple hallways. One had a door at the end, but he couldn't see down the other. There were two chairs - a rocking chair and a large, velvet chair, both in opposite corners of the room. He was sitting on a red couch, and his...'uncle' was sitting on a stool next to it.

It was familiar. Eerily so.

"To answer your questions, you passed out, and right now, you're in my old house," he explained.

_Oh. Right._

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. He'd never had an uncle. After a small mental debate, he settled on small talk.

"Well...can you tell me anything about this place?" he asked, turning so he faced the robot. "It's never appeared on any maps I've seen, and definitely not in the history books."

"Hmph. I should've known that this place would've been wiped off the chart," the robot grumbled. "At any rate, I'm saving that story for when your old friends get here. If we're lucky, you might manage to dig up some memories out of that big head of yours!" Sonic managed a small grin - in any other situation, he would've laughed, but it was...unnerving, to have someone know him when _he'd_ never met _them_.

"Alright, then." Sonic's stomach rumbled, and he smiled sheepishly. "You don't have anything to eat, do you?"

"'Course I do! I made some chili dogs before you woke up - I figured you'd be hungry. They're in the kitchen."

"Thanks, uh-" he stopped when he realized that he had no idea who this guy was.

"Sir Charles. Friends and family call me 'Uncle Chuck'."

"Cool. Thanks, Uncle Chuck!" he called, zooming down the hallway. "Wait, where's the-"

"Second door on the left!" Uncle Chuck called, grinning to himself.

_Sonic's got a lot of remembering to do, but even so..._

Three knocks came to the door, and Uncle Chuck almost jumped off of his stool.

"I've got it!" he called. _I need to spend less time in my thoughts,_ he thought as he opened the door.

"Hi, Uncle Chuck!" said Sally, stepping through the door and giving him a hug.

"Heya, Sal!" he said, returning the hug.

"Sir Charles," greeted Antoine, giving him a curt nod and a handshake.

"Antoine," he greeted back, with the same seriousness the coyote held.

"Hey, Chuck!" greeted Rotor, giving him a fistbumb.

"Nice to see you, Rotor." Rotor took a seat in the large chair, while Antoine and Sally sat on the couch. Uncle Chuck remained standing.

"So, what did you need, Sir Charles?" Sally asked. "You said that you found something very important, right?"

"As a matter of fact, I did. Something _very_ important."

"Well, do not be holding the suspense on us. What is it?" asked Antoine.

"Well, first, Antoine, I'd be holding _you in_ suspense, and secondly, I've got to go get him. Give me a minute," he said, disappearing down the hall.

"So," Rotor started, pausing for a moment. "Who do you think it is?"

"Excuse me, but how do you know it is a who?" asked Antoine.

"Well, he _did_ say he was going to get 'him', so it's definitely a person."

"And a guy," Sonic added casually.

"Yeah, he said 'him', so the person is male." said Sally, chin in her hand. Rotor was silent, staring at Sonic in total shock.

"What? Never seen a blue hedgehog before?" he asked jokingly. He stepped out of the hall, and Antoine almost shrieked in both fear and - well, just fear. Sally just sighed and propped her head on her hand, looking at Sonic with a bored expression.

"You didn't run diagnostics on him, did you, Sir Charles?"

"...Sally, just look at him. Look him right in the eyes and tell me he's a fake." Sally gave him a glance before answering.

"He's a fa-"

"Hey, the only one who gets to call me a fake is Shadow, and that's just because _he's_ the faker!" Sonic exclaimed, suddenly directly in front of Sally. The shock sent her jumping out of her seat.

"H-how did you - it isn't -"

"Just an FYI, you're talking to the _fastest thing alive,_" Sonic gloated. Sally continued stuttering for a few moments before she managed a proper response.

"...he isn't a fake?" she whispered, managing to look in Uncle Chuck's general direction.

"Sally, this is Sonic. Sonic...this is Sally." Nobody responded, and Sonic was probably the only one who processed what he said.

"Hey, why don't we have some lunch? I'm sure you're all starved," Uncle Chuck said nervously, trying to break the ice.

"I don't think that's going to work, Chuck," Sonic said, poking Sally's face. "They aren't moving."

Sally responded after a few awkward seconds, providing some crucial information and valuable insight pertaining to their situation as a whole.

"...he isn't a fake?"


	2. Alone

Sonic had always wondered what being locked up in a dungeon would be like. Not one of the show-boat dungeons with all the torture tools and big, iron gates and all that irrelevant crap. Just a dark, damp dungeon below some castle.

Now that he knew, he _almost_ wanted to leave.

It was just as boring as he thought it'd be - a pile of hay for a bed, only about ten square feet of space, and not even a window for him to see through. The only light sources were the few torches that had been placed upon the wall, just enough to see a vague shape of what was sitting in his cell. It was quiet. It was lonely. It was _boring._

But those things only made him so much happier than any ordinary prison would.

Over the last few weeks, all sounds seemed like they were consistently ramped up to eleven. Every other day, he'd been on a mission to take down the latest of Miles' mechanical minions, and when they blew up, it sounded like a miniature nuclear blast - considering how ruthless the little jerk had been, it probably _was_.

As for the loneliness, he'd been needing some time for himself. Whenever he got a mission, the person on the other end wasn't giving a debriefing - they were giving a pre-organized _failure_. While he'd been all to take the blame for a failed plan in his younger days, things had changed. Quite honestly, he was tired of holding up the blame and taking the failures onto his shoulders - wasn't it high time for someone else to share the burden?

The boring part was probably what he was least enthusiastic about, but at least he could fall asleep easily. There was literally nothing he needed to do - no problems, no missions, not even other people. _Especially_ other people. There'd been so much social turmoil in his life, but this particular time trumped them all - lost faith, betrayals, insecurity - it was all becoming a grotesque, twisted picture of past relations.

If he could've fixed it, he would have. But there was nothing to fix - it was all gone.

...

Maybe it was the whole dungeon thing. Maybe he'd become too isolated for his own good. The regretful feeling of abandonment sunk in for the first time in days, and no matter how much he tried not to, his mind wandered right back to...

..._damn. Even down here, I can't just forget about her._

Maybe the opposite of what he'd assumed was true - alone, in the pitch black cellar of a crumbling castle, was where he missed her the most. Perhaps the isolation was too much. If he hadn't left her, then...

"Does she miss me too?" he wondered aloud. His voice echoed down the stone tunnels, providing an eerie encore of his own distorted voice.

Before he could think more on the subject, his eyes began to droop, and everything began to feel more...relaxed. As the ship of dreams carried him off and away from consciousness, he could've sworn that he heard someone whisper into his ear...

_"I do."_


End file.
